What Berkeley, Inc. Thinks...

Payden Rygel, the firm that authored the article below, manages a number of mutual funds and is located in LA. Their economic writing and analyses are some of the best, and often more readable than articles written by economists with the Federal Reserve.​This also helps to put the "Brexit" from the European Union (EU) in perspective. Yes, it will create a little more uncertainty, but even with the vote in favor of exiting the EU, the outcome is not set until Britain’s Parliament ratifies it. Obviously the world stock markets have had a nasty reaction over the past few days, but the overall influence on world markets in the mid- and long-term will be muted. International trading costs will increase for Britain, and the EU will be tough on Britain since it will likely want to discourage other member nations from even considering leaving the trading bloc. The world economy will continue to function.

Our response at Berkeley, Inc. will be to maintain your portfolios as they have been designed. We will be doing some “tax loss swaps” in some of the taxable brokerage accounts, but overall we view this current stock market downturn like most of the others; reaching out to you, our clients, and being glad your accounts are diversified. While stocks have abruptly declined, US-domiciled bonds have appreciated in value; in other words, they are providing the stability in your portfolios that we expected. We will let the dust from Friday’s Brexit storm settle, giving us time to better determine the potential future impacts, but in time will invest a portion of the cash in some of your accounts to maintain target allocations.

If you have questions please don’t hesitate to email, call, stop by or send a carrier pigeon. We’ll gladly review your account with you.Your Berkeley, inc. Team